Mubasher: President Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order that would end the right of citizenship for children of non-US citizens born on US soil, ratcheting up his hardline stance on immigration.
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment," President Trump told news agency Axios.
“You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order” Trump said.
Such a step would trigger legal challenges, mainly arising from the 14th Amendment which stipulates that “all persons born or naturalised” in the US are deemed US citizens.
“We're the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States ... with all of those benefits,” he said.
Trump did not mention when the order would be signed, saying that lawyers in the White House are reviewing his proposals.
This would amount to another escalation in Trump’s hardline immigration rhetoric.
